Go West, Young Man

7/10/10 Kid's keys, trashed

My Cousin Chad gave us a great baby shower gift last December: a baby backpack. Chad had used it with his own daughters when they were young, and so he did an admirable bit of downsizing by giving it to us.

Chad's one of the few people I know who has a love and knowledge of backpacking to rival my own, so I was thrilled to get this hand-me-down from him.

Chase is finally big enough to sit independently in the backpack, so we christened it today with a 1 1/2 hour hike in Morrison, Colorado. You may know Morrison for the Red Rocks Amphitheater, which we also scoped out today. (Note to self: MUST return to Red Rocks to see a show. Could there be a cooler concert venue? I think not.)

Our hike was in Matthews/Winters Park along the hogback, the rolling foothills that separate the great plains from the mountains. Very beautiful.

I employed an old ultra-lightweight backpacking trick, bringing an umbrella along for the hike, since most of it was out in the open, exposed to the sun. Joanna walked along in eighty-degree sunshine; Chase and I ambled in cool shade. Jo and I had fun, and Chase really enjoyed his first excursion into the great outdoors.

What he would have also loved was to suck on the plastic keys that came attached to the backpack when Chad gave it to us. These keys were clearly well-loved and well-teethed by Chad's daughters, perhaps while crawling through a mud puddle.

While I'm trying not to drag Chase's stuff into the Downsizing challenge too much, we are certainly being thoughtful about what we buy and save for him. While those keys could probably have been cleaned up, he already has a similar set, and I figure no six-month-old needs to own more keys than I do.

I reluctantly dropped them into the trash.

The backpack, however, shall not be downsized anytime soon -- it's destined for a lot of use. Call it our key to the great outdoors.